A person suffers from psychosis if he has hallucinations and delusions and can not say with certainty whether his observations are real or not. A form of psychosis that often occurs is schizophrenia. People can sometimes think very clearly and function well, but also have moments when they can no longer take care of themselves.

Schizophrenia occurs in 1 to 2 percent of people in the United States and in 0.5 to 1 percent of all people around the world. Schizophrenia is more common in men than women and is more common in colored people than in whites. About 90% of people with schizophrenia seek help. The disorder often develops in youth or young adulthood.

Symptoms of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a very complex disorder. A distinction is made between two categories of symptoms, the positive and the negative symptoms. The DSM-V refers to the schizophrenia spectrum, to show that there are five domains of symptoms that define psychotic disorders, and their number, severity and duration distinguish psychotic disorders from each other.

Positive symptoms

Positive symptoms, or Type I symptoms, are characterized by the presence of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and thoughts and disorganized or catatonic behavior. These symptoms can also occur in other disorders, such as bipolar disorder, so that makes the diagnosis for schizophrenia difficult. It is also possible that the symptoms occur in people who actually have no problems. Think of people who hear voices and attribute this to their religion. There are also people who, due to the symptoms, have no control over reality: delusional disorder (delusions).

The rule is that if the positive symptoms only occur during a manic or depressive period, the diagnosis 'mood disorder with psychotic characteristics' is made. If the positive symptoms also occur outside the manic or depressive periods, the diagnosis is made schizophrenia.

Delusions are ideas that the patient thinks are true, while those ideas are very unlikely or even impossible. Many people sometimes have unlikely thoughts, but there are differences between these kinds of thoughts and delusions. When healthy people have unlikely thoughts, they are not completely unbelievable, while delusions are. People with delusions constantly think about it and seek evidence for their ideas, with which they try to convince others. In addition, people with delusions can not accept that their thoughts are not right.

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